Painkillers
by tsurikato
Summary: Ino's drunk. Shikamaru was pestered by a pinkhaired kunoichi in the middle of the night to get her. How troublesome. plotlessish, ShikaIno


**Disclaimer**: Seriously. You've read enough of this.

I just got this random idea in my head when I was walking inside my room, humming about the positive new reviews I got for my KH2 story Not Quite. My DNAngel fic, We Could Be in Love, only got two reviews, but I expected it, considering it was a SatoRisa, and that couple isn't as popular.

Then, I started to think of those clichéd "I'm-drunk-and-the-man-who's-in-love-with-me-takes-me-home-and-I-confess-my-true-feelings" fics. And then I thought…

_Aw hell. Might as well make a craptastic one for the sake of it!_

I love ShikaIno.

* * *

Honestly, it was like any other bar in any kind of town. It stunk to some extent, included drinking, burly men, and the occasional 'drowning-down-my-depression' people.

Nara Shikamaru never expected to step foot in one at the tender age of nineteen. No, he was actually bothering to wait for the legal age of twenty-one since he claimed it was way too bothersome to break the law and get caught. He was in here for a different purpose.

"HEEEY! SHIKA-KUUUN!11!1!oneone!"

And that purpose was the blonde-headed girl who was currently speaking L337 and waving to him like a madwoman.

"Ino!" He hissed, marching over to the corner where she was with his fists in his pockets. He didn't want to attract attention, although his twitching-like-mad eye was doing so. He took one hand out of his pocket and grabbed Ino's arm. "Come on, we're leaving."

"WhaAt? But Shika-kuuuun!" Ino drawled, her breath reeking with alcohol. Shikamaru's eye twitched again. That wasn't exactly the kind of breath you would want to wake up to. "I didn't even p4y!" **(1)**

"You don't need to," he hissed again. He turned to the woman behind the bar. "Oi, Pazela, give me a tab later, okay?"

Mei Pazela, a foreign citizen addition to the Hidden Leaf village, was already acquainted with Shikamaru after her twin, Mey, had been obsessing over the lazy genius the first time he showed his strategic skills. "No problem, Nara," she shouted over. Mei reached under the bar and put a few pills in a small clear bag. She handed it to Shikamaru, who was dragging the mind-transfer ninja out. "I think these painkillers could come in handy. Last time Yamanaka came in here, she told my sister that she didn't have any of these in her house."

Shikamaru looked indifferent, but in the inside, he paled. _Never let Ino get an apartment by herself._ He reminded. He took the plastic bag gratefully and made his goodbye.

As soon as they were outside, Shikamaru felt the shiver that chilled Ino's bones and gave her goose bumps. It was nearing the end of spring, but at times, Konoha would get mild nights where people would start getting used to the hot weather they were getting.

"Mm…Shikaaaa," Ino murmured, "everything's so spin—oh!"

Shikamaru had caught the blonde girl before she fell and picked her up bridal-style with much ease. He was already used to her weight, no matter how many times he called her fat and got beaten up for it. "Troublesome girl," he muttered half-angrily and half-embarrassed, walking down the dark street with an annoyed face on. He woke up in the middle of the night to pick up a troublesome girl from a bar because a certain pink-haired woman had asked her to.

"_Psst…psst…Shikamaru!"_

"…_Go away, mom…"_

"_Shikamaru! It's me, Sakura, you idiot!"_

"……_What the hell do you want?"_

"_(glares) Can you do me a favor?"_

"_(groans) What?"_

"_I can't get Ino out of the bar that the Pazelas own and Sasuke's going to wonder where the hell I am. You usually make her budge anyways."_

"_(eyes narrow) Then get your boyfriend to get her out. She seems infatuated enough with him to get her moving."_

"_When hell freezes over!"_

"_I think I felt a cold chill right now."_

Sakura eventually managed (forced) to get Shikamaru off his lazy ass and go to that certain bar, which would explain his pissy mood.

Oh, the things he did for love.

"Shika-kun is so warm," Ino giggled and snuggled closer to his neck, making Shikamaru get redder by the second. "I like warm…mmm, not like cold Sasuke-bastard…"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow but decided not to comment on it until he got to her apartment. He refused to confess, but that small drunk statement had lifted his hopes a bit.

Ino had entrusted him with an extra key of her apartment just in case she wants him to get something for her. Then again, it's always Shikamaru and not someone else like Chouji. "Oh, he'll raid my fridge," she told him as an excuse and dropped the silver key in his hand. Now there were two keys on his little key ring he actually made use of: one for his apartment and one for Ino's. It annoyed him, sometimes, when he's innocently walking down a quiet street and he hears the small sound of two pieces of metal clinking together constantly.

"Heey! Shika, let's go to your place!" Ino exclaimed rather loudly. The genius winced, hoping she didn't wake anyone up in the apartment building.

"Too late for that, troublesome girl," he said with much more sentimentality in the new nickname he had acquired for his childhood friend. With a little bit of difficulty, he managed to open the door to her apartment and kicked it open some more. "We're already at your—" He looked around and cringed, "—poor excuse of a home."

Ino looked around uncaringly. "What? I find more things in mess!" She still slurred her sentences, indicating she was still drunk.

Ino's apartment was littered with more junk that could kill innocent wild animals, like plastic bags and maybe a few shards of glass here and there. One of the cushions of the couch was on the floor and was collecting a little bit of dust, and everything seemed so…out of place.

"Jeez, Ino," he said, narrowly missing a piece of glass, "I'm a guy, and my apartment's cleaner than yours!"

Ino's eyebrows rose and she giggled. "But you're a geeeeenius, Shika-kun!" She latched on to him even tighter, and Shikamaru found it hard to even move when he finally reached the clear floor of the hallway leading to her bathroom and bedroom. It wasn't that it was small, but it was the fact that she was so damn close… "Nyahaha! My geeenius Shika-kun!"

Shikamaru practically stumbled through her bedroom door with a flushed face. "What does me being a genius have to do with being clean?" He asked her, letting her down softly on the bed. Like a parent, he had taken the covers underneath to use it to cover Ino.

"Mm…well…" Ino started, and her eyes closed in deep thought, "First of all, you're not **a** genius, you're **my** genius!" Shikamaru felt his cheeks getting hot. _Too troublesome! Too troublesome!_ "And my genius has to have good morals and principles, and he has to be devoted!"

He kneeled next to her side since a chair was no where near, and he propped his head on his hand. "What about that Uchiha?" he asked, expecting the usual answer from the blonde.

"Screw him!"

…That was unexpected.

"He can rot in hell for all I caaare!" Ino said with much feeling, leaving Shikamaru to stay still for a few seconds to register what she just said. "I just pretended all this time so forehead-girl can have competition and realize her damn feelings for him are true!"

"…But…then," Shikamaru said, wondering if he was stuttering, "who do you lo—"

"Shiiiika…" she drawled again. "I'm tiiiiired. Can you give me a kiss good-night?"

This seemed to be one of the first times in Shikamaru's life where he used up excess energy in the early hours of the morning. "WHA—"

Ino wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer, and everything else is history.

* * *

Ino woke up to pain, and she desperately tried to shield her eyes away from the blinding sun. It was bright, it seemed early, and her splitting headache wasn't making it any better.

"You might as well just wake up," she heard a familiar voice say coming closer to her. If she concentrated enough, she could hear the slight sloshing of water in a tall glass cup, indicating he had one in his hand. In the other were a couple of painkillers that he intended Ino to use. "While we have our days off, you might as well clean up the damn place."

Ino reluctantly removed her arm to reveal her slightly agonized face. "Screw you, Shikamaru," she hissed.

He rolled his eyes. "Where did I hear that from?" he said sarcastically, and set the glass on the nearby bedside table. "Take your painkillers."

"Mine?" Ino wondered out loud, wincing as she attempted to sit up in bed. "I have none. And what the hell are you doing in my apartment anyway!"

"Watch out," he said monotonously, "if you yell too much, that hangover of yours is going to get worse."

"Where was I?"

"Haruno told me that you were at the Pazelas' bar and badgered me into getting you," he muttered in reply. He stuck out his hand, and in it were two pills. "Take it, Mei gave it to me."

Ino's eyebrow rose. "Which one?"

"The one with an 'I'."

"Hmm…" Ino hummed thoughtfully. She took one pill and downed it with the water he offered her. "Hopefully these can fix my memory or dreamscape somehow."

"How so?" Shikamaru asked.

The blonde girl had to contemplate for a minute and glanced at the lazy man standing next to her bed. He almost missed the slight blush on her face when she turned away. Keyword: almost.

"I…had this weird dream," Ino began shyly. "I kind of…uh…how do I put it?"

I mean, how were you supposed to say, "I had a dream that you and I were kissing!" to the one person you've been having your eyes on for the past few years? YEARS! Ino never really expected herself to be so devoted to something so…true. Hey! Her infatuation for Sasuke was a childish illusion, and she was stuck on him since she was little. If this was for real, then Ino was probably twice as devoted.

It lightly surprised her at the revelation.

"What?" Shikamaru asked, hoping she could get on with her sentence. "Did you kiss someone or something?"

Bull's eye. Ino felt a huge vault just dropped her head. Her blush erupted into something worse: her red face. "Uh…"

The lazy genius's heart started to unconsciously beat faster. "Who? Uchiha?"

"No!" Ino retorted quickly, snapping her head towards him with a frustrated face. Shikamaru was taken slightly aback. "When the hell were you so interested? Why the hell do you always think its Sasuke-kun? What happens if it was? Is it because you think I'm jealous of forehead-girl because of her relationship with Sasuke-kun? Maybe I am because she has such a hot, mysterious guy who can keep you in suspense and he's probably great in bed and—mmph…"

A few seconds later, Ino's brain had finally processed an order: give in.

She let her eyelids fall, and she placed her hands on Shikamaru's smooth face, lightly pulling him closer to her lips.

They parted after a few minutes, yet they stayed close to each other for a prolonged period which gave them time to recuperate. Shikamaru's hand moved from under Ino's chin and to the smooth skin on her blushing cheek.

The man acted again, pressing his lips on hers for another time and pushing her back onto the bed. This time, he moved with her, and one leg straddled hers. Ino, more confident now, wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed him down, begging for more passion. Shikamaru's arms, as if they were acting on their own, slid down and encircled Ino's small waist, marveling at the petite size of her body.

They finally disconnected, running out of breath, and staring each other down with a new light in their eyes.

"So," Shikamaru interrupted the silence, "who'd you kiss?"

Ino chuckled. "The way you attacked me right now, I'm guessing it wasn't so much of a dream as I thought."

Shikamaru smirked. "Your head hurt?" Ino shook her head in reply.

"You want to help me clean up my place?" she asked, a half-smile adorning her gorgeous face. Her finger had started to make slow circles on his back, as if she was trying to seduce him.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes again, only the smirk was still evident. "Che. The things I do for love." Ino squealed.**

* * *

(1)** No. That's not a typo. It actually is a more n00b form of L337, which I can effectively type and read to some extent. 4 is a, so basically, Ino's just saying "pay".

WOW. Waffiest fic I've ever written:D Hope your teeth doesn't hurt, because mine don't. I suck at make-out scenes, sorry guys.

I hope you like it though. The ShikaIno fans are awfully quiet, and I'm being a biased biznatch and refusing to read any ShikaTema…at all.

No matter whether there's a NaruSaku and a KibaHina tempting me, I refuse to read it. In the end, I'm probably missing a good fic. Sorry, I just **have** to have my ShikaIno.

Read and Review please!

* * *

**Omake**

_Rin, rin_ went the little bell that was placed above the door to alert anyone of an incoming customer.

Somewhere in the back of the store, Ino lightly pushed Shikamaru off.

"Shika-kun," she seethed, "there's a customer!"

Said man gingerly let go...but not without an extra kiss on her neck. Ino came out of the backroom looking flushed, and Shikamaru soon came after her, his hands in his pockets and his eyes half-lidded.

"Hello! Welcome to Yamanaka Flower Shop! How may I..." Ino paused. "..Mey?"

Mey Pazela, the other half of Mei Pazela, waved. "The one with the 'y', yes!" The way you could tell the difference between Mei and Mey was that Mei was taller by a couple of inches and had longer hair. Plus, she was born first, but you can't really tell that from her appearance.

Ino slightly paled, and Shikamaru's eyes actually bothered to widen at the sight of his fangirl.

"U-uh...are you here to order flowers?" Ino asked, hoping to be as strictly business as possible.

"Nope!" Mey responded, shaking her head vigorously. "I came here to deliver some!" Then, from behind her back, she took out a bouquet consisting of red pure roses with a cute chocolate one in the middle. "Ta-daaaaaah! Congratulations!" Ino took the bouquet, touched but confused. Red roses not only stood for love and passion, but it also meant congratulations.

"Congratulations on what?" Shikamaru asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mey's face turned pink. "Well...you guys got together, right?" Ino and Shikamaru blushed. "So here! You can both share the chocolate rose in the middle, Mei just thought it would be cute. I have to go now and help Mei with some stuff at the house. Baai!"

"Wait! Mey!" Ino called. Said girl turned around and blinked. "Aren't you a...a...fangirl?"

Mey pouted. "Of course! I still am! You just look better with him."

**Owari**


End file.
